I facilitate an exercise in my Leadership Development Program where I ask each participant to identify the best leader who he/she has ever known. This leader can be from the past or present, be real or fictional and can come from any walk of life (business, sports, politics, community, religion, etc.). I next ask participants to list the traits/characteristics/competencies/strengths of the leaders and to identify the traits that they (the leaders) have in common. I record these common traits on a flip chart and then perform a simple analysis – how many of these traits are left brain (based on knowledge, competencies, achieving results, analysis, planning, detail orientation, numbers orientation, getting things done, etc.) versus right brain (people-oriented, emotions, values, coaching/mentoring, having a compelling vision, innovative, intuitive, etc.).  I have facilitated this exercise dozens and dozens of times over the past ten years and, in every case, over 80% of the traits are right brain-oriented. This is consistent with Daniel Goleman’s research that concludes that emotional intelligence outweighs cognitive intelligence as a predictor of leadership success.

It is with the above in mind that I read about research conducted at Princeton University that revealed that, in order to be considered trustworthy, you need to be perceived as being both warm and competent. One’s competence (being intelligent, skilled, effective) establishes one’s credibility in being able to get the job done and achieve results. One’s warmth (being friendly, loyal, empathetic) is “taken as evidence that you have good intentions toward the perceiver and it’s the very first thing about you that they hone in on”. Clearly, from the perspective of the perceiver’s brain, the perception of someone as being warm is a critical element of leadership.
However, most people feel that, in order to be perceived as an effective leader within the business community, they have to emphasize competence over warmth.  In fact, in trying to appear competent, people often engage in behaviors that work against them being perceived as warm – speaking rather than listening, focusing on their own accomplishments and abilities and being egotistical. There seems to be a focus on competence at the expense of acting with others’ interests in mind. Herein lies the irony – the majority of managers, while identifying right brain-oriented emotional intelligence as taking precedence over left-brain cognitive intelligence vis-a-vis leadership development, focus on left-brain competence over right-brain warmth. In trying to be perceived as an organizational leader, the manager engages in behaviors that are right brain-unfriendly – and inevitably fails.
Understandably, the majority of managers are wary of coming across as “warm” because most organizational cultures discourage such displays of humanity. The majority of companies focus on numbers and results and often see open displays of warmth as signs of weakness. CEOs and other C-Suite executives have to start changing their company’s cultures by recognizing that right brain displays of warmth are important signs of leadership that are necessary in order to rally others to achieve the organization’s financial objectives. Managers must become role models in engaging in trust-building activities such as making eye contact, actively listening, showing empathy, avoiding micromanaging, delegating appropriately, sharing personal stories, talking about personal struggles and challenges and referring to their fallible, human sides. Let’s learn by studying the traits and behaviors of great,inspiring leaders and adapting and applying them within our organizations. We need a management revolution to reflect the reality of leading in the twenty-first century!